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Social networks are a means of raising funds to rescue migrants detained in Libya

February 13, 2019

Credits: AP Photo

Social networks have recently formed platforms for mass funding campaigns and donations for commercial or humanitarian purposes and projects. However, human trafficking networks soon intercepted these platforms and forced the families of migrants detained in Libya to use them to collect certain amounts of money to determine migrants' country of origin migrant and their economic status.

With the closure of smuggling routes from Libya, especially after the European Union has pursued policies aimed at reducing the number of arrivals to Italy, gangs and militias in Libya that have been engaged in smuggling people have begun to adopt more violent methods in extortion of money.

The video published by CNN on slave markets and persecutions against migrants in Libya in 2017 is proof of what happened to the status of immigrants in the country, and how their journey from seeking European paradise turner to hell.

During their journey, technology and modern means of communication formed essential and necessary tools for migrants, saving their lives many times.

But such tools became soon source of despair for them and their families, as gangs and human trafficking militias began to communicate with migrants' families asking for money. The gangs started to publish horrific photographs and videos of tortures and beatings against detained migrants, forcing their families to move faster and secure the amount requested for release.